sent us to do. >> you mentioned the fiscal cliff and i want to ask you about it. president obama even in his p - proposal yesterday had entitlement cuts including to medicare. you have in the past been resistant to cutting entit entitlements. does the result of the election -- i've heard many people on the democratic side say, look, we won. we don't need to make concess n concessions to republicans on entitlements. we can raise the top rates without making these concessions. do you think the president is even in this first proposal giving away too much on the entitlement side? >> i think it's important to note that there's a difference between working to cut medicare and protecting the benefits. and itch said repeatedly that i will not vote to cut the benefits people have earned and depend on because they put those benefits into place, one, this in the middle of a depression, social security, and the other one, medicare, because they were needed. republicans and democrats recognized they needed these programs because people got old and people got sick and they sti